Author Notes: Between our CSA and garden, we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in beets a few summers ago. I concocted this dish as an homage to a simple French peasant dinner. When I explained the concept to my husband, he riduculed me, "What peasants eat boucheron and drink Muscadet with their beets?" "Um, French ones?" - Amy_N-B —Amy_N-B

Food52 Review: In our next life, we'd like to be French peasants, or at least, eat like them. We have a soft spot for beet recipes that utilize both the sweet root and minerally tops. Here, Amy_N-B has you caramelize slices of yellow and red beets (we used 4 large beets total; might do 3 next time) and then add a mix of beet tops and Swiss chard, cooking them just enough to wilt. You'll love the dish at this point, but you'll be riveted if you serve it with oozy boucheron and good country bread. —The Editors

Serves 2 for dinner, 4 as a side

4-6 Beets with greens (I like a mixture of golden and red beets)

1bunch Swiss chard

3tablespoons butter

1 shallot

Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

2 tablespoons white wine (Muscadet is my preference)

2tablespoons water

.5pounds Bucheron Cheese (room temperature)

Crusty peasant style bread (warmed in oven

Scrub and peel the beets. Remove the greens and chop coarsely. Set the greens aside in a large prep bowl. Slice beets into 1/4 inch rounds.

Remove the ribs from the swiss chard and coarsely chop and toss into bowl with the beet greens,

In a large sautee pan, melt butter. Sautee shallots.

Add beet rounds to the shallot butter mixture. Crack some pepper over the beets and a toss on a pinch of salt. Reduce heat and sautee beets, turning over to ensure even cooking.

About 15 minutes later when beets are begnning to glaze and become tender, add greens and chard. Sautee for about 5 minutes, then add wine and cover. Cook until greens are wilted, adding water if necessary. Allow liquid to be mostly absorbed into greens, adjust seasonings.

Scoop greens and beets into a low shallow bowl. Garnish with a sizeable wedge of bucheron and some crusty bread. Crack a little bit of pepper over the entire dish.

Donna, I did peel and slice the raw beets so they'd absorb the butter and wine while cooking. It wasn't hard with a vegetable peeler and no more clean-up than peeling potatoes or carrots. I'm not sure how much flavor you'd lose if you roasted the unpeeled beets first, then peeled and sliced them, but that might be easier.

Am I missing something with this recipe? It says 'simple' but peeling raw beets and slicing them 1/4" thick is a task that is anything but simple!!!!! Not to mention the cleanup involved. How did everyone handle this part of the recipe?

Made this for lunch and it was great! Such a nice way to eat beetroot. We did not have the boucheron but I bet it is nice with it! I saw a comment suggering to put some mint leaves and I would try next time, the idea of beetroot and mint sounds nice

This was a hit last night, served as a warm salad after a first course of pan-fried scallops and risotto. Substituted chevre medallions for the boucheron because that's what my store had. We'll have the leftovers tonight with cucumber-yogurt salad.

No one else mentioned any difficulty cooking the beets. Mine were still not cooked through after 40 minutes of sauteeing them - even though mine were cut thinner than the ones in the pictures above. My shallots ended up burning after so long in the pan. I'm wondering if I had the heat too high? the beets too thin? I can imagine how good these would be if I could perfect the method.

This is how I have prepared my beets (both red and yellow) for years. I roast them until tender and sugary sweet. Peel, slice and dress with thinly sliced onion, fresh parsley, olive oil and red wine vinegar. I also include the greens, but love that this recipe uses Swiss chard too. A must try when I get my next freh bunch of beets from my farmers market.

Tried this recipe, the wife and I loved it. The cheese we had was smoked gouda, the bread was ciabatta. It accompanied chicken with roasted carrots, and a glass wine. Will definently make again. The dish looked just as the recipe showed.

Finally made this tonight (had saved it a while ago) -- it was so very good! No bucheron to be found in our town but I'm addicted to a French triple creme available at Costco (Le Delice de Bourgogne) & the dish was perfection. I made the mistake of using it as a side for grilled steak & roasted green beans but next time will make it the entree!

I made this dish last night for a few friends, and we all could not stop commenting on how wonderful the dish was. It was superb, I can't wait to make it again! In addition to golden beets and regular red beets, I also used candy striped beets (aka "Chioggia" beets). And I had no Bucheron so I used a semi-firm goat cheese. These substitutions worked out fantastically.Amy_N-B, thank you for sharing this recipe with us all!